What we can learn from moon cycles, planting seeds, and the new year for trees.

Once in a blue moon I take a detour on my walk to the gym. Today was one of those days.

I could see the full moon from my window until just before the eclipse started. I raced through Greenwich Village in an attempt to catch the rare super blue blood moon, but the moon faded out of sight behind the buildings and the sunrise was coming too fast.

Oh well. You can’t blame a girl for trying. We can’t always see everything.

Nature’s Rhythms

I’ve previously shared how I started living more according to the laws of nature last year.

This means following the moon cycles.

Nature is run by the moon cycles. The moon sets a rhythm. It doesn’t merely rise and set each day; it emerges and hides throughout each month, waxing and waning.

Living by the moon cycles is actually not entirely new for me. The Jewish calendar follows the lunar cycles.

New Year for Trees

Today, on the full moon, was also the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat. It’s a minor holiday called Tu B’Shevat. Which is one of four New Years holidays in the Jewish year. (Rosh Hashana gets most of the attention.)

Tu B’Shvat is the New Year for trees. In Israel, it’s a day for literal planting of trees, to aid in the reforestation of the land. It’s also a day for planting seeds of intention.

Tu B’Shevat celebrates the genesis of potential. This is the time when the sap begins rising in the trees, which will cause the fruit to blossom.

Celebrating the Process

Nature does not make a resolution or set a goal and expect to reach it overnight. She works slowly. She has a process and a rhythm.

In fact, it’s this process that we celebrate on Tu B’Shevat. This holiday celebrates the fruit trees before they bear fruit as a reminder that the miracles of nature and life are in the process, not just the outcome.

The wisdom teaching of this holiday is that if we only celebrated the fruit when it appeared we would lose appreciation for the process.

The process includes things we can’t see, like sap rising up in the tree or the moon when she is new. And it includes things we can see, such as the moon waxing larger and growing full, and fruit blooming on the tree’s branches.

As in nature, so too in life.

This is time time to plant seeds of intention for this year, to listen to the rising call within us for what fruits we will grow and harvest this year.

And we are reminded to appreciate the process.

As I like to say, the juice is in the journey.

Over the next couple of days, I will choose what seeds to plant for my year.

That doesn’t mean I’ve been doing nothing until now. My daily rituals set my rhythm and keep me moving each day towards my bigger vision, one step at a time. They are a part of my process, creating a fertile soil for my seeds of intention.

What are you planting?

What seeds of intention are you planting for this year? How do you celebrate your process?

Please share in the comments.